Mise-en-scène in the opening sequence of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone'

The two characters at the start of the opening scene are both wearing long gowns and pointy hats which are often associated with wizards and witches and so helps define their roles. Wizards and witches are naturally classified into the fantasy genre and so as their clothes help show what they are, they ultimately play a part in showing which genre the film fits into. The third character however is wearing a more scruffy attire, which unlike the smarter gowns of the other two, displays him to be much inferior to them.

In this scene the lighting is very faint. It becomes darker and darker as more street lights are put out as it appears that they are where most of the light is coming from. There is still enough lighting in this scene to create shadows which are used in this scene to show the substantial changing in form of one of the characters. The dim lighting throughout makes for quite an eerie, mysterious and ghostly feeling.

All the actors’ facial expressions look very concerned and apprehensive, giving a sense of seriousness to the scene. When they are together they remain fairly close to each other, showing that they all share the same emotion and require reassurance as a result.

Make-up is used on the third character to create a sooty effect which complements his untidy clothing and further shows him to be shabby, yet submissive.

One prop used in this opening scene is a magical piece of equipment which allows the character to remove light sources from his surroundings, verifying that this film belongs in the fantasy genre. Another prop is a motorbike which the third character flies to join the other two with. This also confirms the genre, as fantasy films often have elements of magic and supernatural events such as this.

The setting is just an ordinary street with some unsophisticated houses and a few cars. The fact that an obviously magical baby is being brought to grow up in such a normal area allows us to see that the story will focus on him and we can predict that he will be unaware of his background.